Opera summary: art screams your faith

The articles written by the PÚBLICO Brasil team are written in the variant of the Portuguese language used in Brazil.

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A century ago, Paul Hindemith composed the opera Santa Susanafrom the libretto by August Witting. The almost 25-minute show scandalized society by representing sexual desire in conflict with spiritual devotion in a convent context. The nun's surrender to pleasures, from the encounter of her body with the image of Christ on the altar, implied a strong criticism of religious institutions, fanaticism and physical punitiveness in relation to moral deviations, in addition to the attempt to materialize in the body the ecstasy of spiritual surrender. The musical structure was composed following the modern language of the time, dissonant, whose combinations mainly provoke sensations of discomfort and tension.

Recently, the opera was remounted by Florentina Holzinger under the shortened name of Holy. As always, his shows are: in a radically authorial format, lasting almost three hours, with violent, excessive, provocative and disturbing scenes. The Austrian choreographer and performer, graduated in Applied Arts at the University of Music and Performing Arts, researches the body, especially her own, as a means of acting and manifesting forms of social, religious and gender violence, with a high sexual presence. And a lot of provocation and irony. Both to social structures and to the limits of art. It was predictable, therefore, that Holzinger would encounter Hildemith's work at some point.

After a few presentations, always with local reactions from conservatives and religious people, something else happened. At the Staatsoper Stuttgart, one of the most renowned European theaters linked to experimentalism, 18 people reported feeling ill. As far as we know, few needed the presence of doctors. While the international press rushed to justify the violence of the scenes in the show, involving real sex, blood and other elements as the cause.

It is not necessary to see the work, just some of the excerpts made available for dissemination by concert halls and festivals, to immediately find other possible arguments, namely, the loud music, the strobe lighting, the chaotic context. As in any amusement park, art gallery or cinema, these are elements that can cause feelings of nausea, dizziness and even trigger panic, which is why we receive warnings when we enter. It wouldn't be any different in the theater.

With such an exposure of violence on the multiple screens that accompany us daily, with displays of bodies, war contexts, the most varied forms of violence and brutality, it wouldn't just be the scenes, since the viewer interested in Holzinger knows exactly what you can find. And, if not exactly, expect nothing less than to be surprised by the radicality of its language.

The same happens with other artists, such as the director, playwright and performer Angélica Liddell, from whom we know that we will always receive deeply challenging and disturbing speeches and scenes. Listing the artists who confront religiosity and religions would make this text almost infinite, as this has always happened, in each era with the characteristics they access.

Recently, 11-bit studios launched the game for several platforms Indicate. Set in 19th century Russia, but with medieval characteristics, the central character, the nun Indika, is confronted by the others when they realize that she hears voices, perhaps from the Devil himself. The game is deeply melancholic and, contrary to what is expected from an action game, it has a slow pace and banal actions that require the player to dive deeper, less fun and more reflective.

Also in Indicatesexuality is on the scene and the character herself, at a certain point, is forced to serve others to reach her destiny, in a deep state of humiliation and defiance of her beliefs. The game had to be completed in Kazakhstan, after the creators' stay in Russia became dangerous and unfeasible, says Dmitry Svetlow.

Some may wonder why artists are so fascinated with confronting religious institutions. But what if we do the opposite exercise? Intellectuals from opposing currents and different disciplines write about the presence of belief and religiosity as a dogma to be questioned, demonstrating the possibility of understanding religion through other paths. The most common, and historically unquestionable, criticism is that religions, especially monotheistic ones, have promoted various forms of violence, holy wars, colonization and forms of domination and submission.

There are those who invite people to “atheology”, as opposed to theology, through which the deconstruction of the bases of religious thought can be complexified and questioned, in order to deconstruct the mental ties that sustain religion in society.

Michael Onfray explains how religions, having their pillars in fables, helped the development of a certain irrationality, as limiting ourselves to dogma would be the same as renouncing reason, without which we become mental slaves incapable of establishing another ethical perspective. From reflections like this, others unfolded: faced with the impossibility of a scientific affirmation of God, in the absence of empirical evidence, belief is a delusional state.

The argument is that many of the aspects treated by religion as divine can be explained based on natural processes; as well as morality itself, possible to be exercised by rationality without the presence of an external force or institution.

Biology, culture and psychology are capable of replacing many of the principles determined by religious beliefs. Which, ultimately, makes the study of religion something to be compared to other instances, such as behavior and language. And, in a less radical way, scholars suggest the development of beliefs as an evolutionary necessity to achieve social cohesion, offer psychological comfort, etc. These would still be important benefits, which religious institutions took advantage of and use in positive and negative ways.

It is necessary, then, to think about how religious institutions, accepting belief as a necessary fable for evolutionary development, have made belief, faith and spirituality objects of mischaracterization and deformation of rational morality and ethics of bodies, identities, desires .

It is not surprising, therefore, that artists continue to violently confront religious institutions and, consequently, their dogmas and beliefs. But it is special to note how much religion is still a foundation for them to be discussed and deconstructed, that is, present and determining in their own disturbances.

After all, you only fight against what you make alive in yourself. And denying and reacting is the first gesture of art. Even if it's against who you are, against who you don't want to be, against what torments you. Sharing the torment with the spectator, made into the image of a crucified body in the dining room watching you. Nothing can be more religious than this.

Suggested readings:

Florentina Holzinger: A work in progress. Editora Dance in August 2019.

Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenonby Daniel Dennett. Editora Objetiva, 2010.

Treatise on Atheology: The Religion of Reasonby Michael Onfray. Authentic Publisher, 2007.

God's Disillusionmentby Richard Dawkins. Casa das Letras, 2007.